i found a good web site surfing the net.if you like the red buses of leeds,from the old bus station.type in west yorkshire road car company@fotopic.netloads of pics of the buses parked up at vicar lane

just out of interest, how long has the Hellenic cafe been on Vicar Lane?I presume it was opened when the bus station was running.I know it has been there over 25 years to my knowledge.

This has come up on another thread. I remember going into the greek coffee bar on Vicar lane near the West Yorks bus station in about 1964. It seemed very new and modern then. So it goes back over 45 years.

It used to be said that the statue of the Black Prince had been placed in City Square , near the station, pointing South to tell all the southerners who've just got off the train to b****r off back down south!

just out of interest, how long has the Hellenic cafe been on Vicar Lane?I presume it was opened when the bus station was running.I know it has been there over 25 years to my knowledge.

This has come up on another thread. I remember going into the greek coffee bar on Vicar lane near the West Yorks bus station in about 1964. It seemed very new and modern then. So it goes back over 45 years.

There was a feature on the Greek owned cafes of the city centre in the YEP a few months back and I'm sure that the Hellenic, along with others, does date back to the 60's.

We'd often go in for a tea and a bun if we were meeting relatives there off a "red" bus in the 70's and 80's.

Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act – George Orwell

just out of interest, how long has the Hellenic cafe been on Vicar Lane?I presume it was opened when the bus station was running.I know it has been there over 25 years to my knowledge.

This has come up on another thread. I remember going into the greek coffee bar on Vicar lane near the West Yorks bus station in about 1964. It seemed very new and modern then. So it goes back over 45 years.

There was a feature on the Greek owned cafes of the city centre in the YEP a few months back and I'm sure that the Hellenic, along with others, does date back to the 60's.

We'd often go in for a tea and a bun if we were meeting relatives there off a "red" bus in the 70's and 80's.

It turns out that many of the cofee bars were owned by Greek Cypriots. I think the one I went to was the Carousel ( although the Hellenic is another possible). The Skandia restaurant was also Greek cypriot owned. It used to be my favourite restaurant and I actually celebrated my 21st birthday with a meal there.

It used to be said that the statue of the Black Prince had been placed in City Square , near the station, pointing South to tell all the southerners who've just got off the train to b****r off back down south!

just out of interest, how long has the Hellenic cafe been on Vicar Lane?I presume it was opened when the bus station was running.I know it has been there over 25 years to my knowledge.

This has come up on another thread. I remember going into the greek coffee bar on Vicar lane near the West Yorks bus station in about 1964. It seemed very new and modern then. So it goes back over 45 years.

There was a feature on the Greek owned cafes of the city centre in the YEP a few months back and I'm sure that the Hellenic, along with others, does date back to the 60's.

We'd often go in for a tea and a bun if we were meeting relatives there off a "red" bus in the 70's and 80's.

It turns out that many of the cofee bars were owned by Greek Cypriots. I think the one I went to was the Carousel ( although the Hellenic is another possible). The Skandia restaurant was also Greek cypriot owned. It used to be my favourite restaurant and I actually celebrated my 21st birthday with a meal there.

Skandia Or Skanda - there were 2 were there not one was a restaurant upstairs in the Merrion Centre, and the other was furter in the Merrion Centre. The cafe was great used to go every saturday about 10 years ago until it closed.

just out of interest, how long has the Hellenic cafe been on Vicar Lane?I presume it was opened when the bus station was running.I know it has been there over 25 years to my knowledge.

This has come up on another thread. I remember going into the greek coffee bar on Vicar lane near the West Yorks bus station in about 1964. It seemed very new and modern then. So it goes back over 45 years.

There was a feature on the Greek owned cafes of the city centre in the YEP a few months back and I'm sure that the Hellenic, along with others, does date back to the 60's.

We'd often go in for a tea and a bun if we were meeting relatives there off a "red" bus in the 70's and 80's.

It turns out that many of the cofee bars were owned by Greek Cypriots. I think the one I went to was the Carousel ( although the Hellenic is another possible). The Skandia restaurant was also Greek cypriot owned. It used to be my favourite restaurant and I actually celebrated my 21st birthday with a meal there.

The Carousel was opposite the Grand Theatre - there was a steak house downstairs. There was another steak house next door called the Delmore (I think) Also opposite on Merrion Street was the Blue Lagoon Steakhouse - it's now the Tripti Indian.

The Skanda grill as I've posted elsewhere was on the frontage of the Merrion Centre that faced Merrion Street. We used to eat there on a monthly basis in the late sixities and early seventies - special treat. We used to have orange sorbet as dessert and think we were very sophisticated.

The could have been where the Delmore was - it's over forty years since I wouldn't eat foreign food. I was persuaded by SWMBO to try the Peony on Commercial Street - I had chicken curry and was sold. We used to go to the Chinese next to the Merrion Center Bowl too. Then we went to London for a week and tried Indian food in a restaurant near Paddington Station and when we got back to Leeds we searched out all the Indians - effectively the Koh in Noor, on Boar Lane, the Ashoka - also near the Merrion Centre Bowl and one at the bottom of Merrion Street opposite the red bus station whose name I can't recall.

The site of the bus station (disused since 1990) is to be demolished as part of the redevelopment of the area in relation to the overall Victoria Gate project and some demolition work is currently going on at a premise by what was the entrance/exit to/from the bus station on Vicar Lane. The long hidden North Bar stone by the premise was exposed on July 23 2014.

During a chat that day with a helpful young bloke doing some of the work he mentioned that some steps had unexpectedly being found during work at the premise. Having gone back yesterday (July 25 2014) he kindly let me take this photo showing a view looking down onto the steps. The steps went down several feet and then seemed to turn left as they continued down. The photo does not however show the steps at all well (I could not get climb down to get onto them for Health & Safety reasons) but it does give at least an impression of what was found under the floor.

I've looked through such as Leodis and Secret Leeds but I've not been able to find a photo that shows anything more than part of the entrance to what would have led to the steps. I cannot recall if those steps were met immediately or if there was a short level bit first. The position of the steps in the premise does not however seem to fit in with the entrance, so I wonder if anyone recalls if there were any steps that led off to perhaps an office or something? The steps width also seems narrower than I seem to recall. I would be grateful if anyone can better recall the steps from Vicar Lane, such as did they go straight down or did they have at least a bend or any leading off.